Circus in America TimeLine
1872-1905
1872-1905 marks what many call the “Golden Age” of the American circus. It also is a period of consolidation of smaller circus companies into large, powerful companies that came to control the entire industry.
In 1872 Barnum, Coup and Castello utilized the railroad to transport the P.T. Barnum’s Museum, Menagerie and Circus. A number of innovations can be attributed to the 1872 Barnum show. Coup “was instrumental in getting the show to travel by rail, devising loading and unloading methods and arranging special excursions from the outlying towns to the show site. [He] introduced a second ring, developed ingenious advertising and promotional stunts such as the Devil’s Whistle, mass litho posting and small town excursions by bands, clowns, etc., to create interest in the show which was in the area.” Slout, William, Olympians of the Sawdust Circle A Biographical Dictionary of the Nineteenth Century American Circus. p.151.
1873 was a banner year for the development of the circus with an increase in attendance, touring, and tent size with the addition of the second ring to increase performance space. The second "innovation" of the circus in 1873 was addition of the flying squadron. The flying squadron consisted of a group of men that would arrive in town a day ahead of the circus to drive the tent stakes. This meant that the circus would save considerable time in putting up tents and preparing for performances. The circus was now able to follow the great expansion of American wherever railroad tracks were laid. No longer was the circus relegated to follow only the dirt roads of an expanding country. The circus had become by far the most popular form of entertainment in America, and Barnum , Coup’s and Castello’s enterprise was America’s leading circus, “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
During the 1870s circuses grew larger and larger. They were now able to transport massive amounts of equipment, hundred of animals and people, and larger tents with more seats. In 1881 the larger tents permitted Barnum and Bailey to expand the number of performing areas from one ring to three rings to accommodate the ever-increasing number of acts and animals. By the end of the century, a circus was not considered worthwhile unless it had three rings under the big top—more rings meant a better show.
The merging of James A. Bailey and P.T. Barnum was a typical Barnum adventure. Bailey was affiliated with the Great London show of Cooper, Bailey and Hutchinson. On March 10, 1880, Cooper and Bailey were delighted when their large Indian elephant Hebe gave birth, in Philadelphia, to “Little Columbia.” This was the first elephant ever born in America. Envious of the publicity and eager to own the baby himself, Barnum reputedly offered $100,000 for her, but Cooper and Bailey wired back “Will not sell at any price” and promptly incorporated Barnum’s offer into their own publicity. Barnum’s reaction was, “I had at last met showmen ‘worthy of my steel’!” The merger of the Barnum’s “Greatest Show on Earth” with Bailey’s Great London show during the 1881 season gave Barnum access to some of the great publicity that Bailey had amassed with his show. The show’s title for the 1881 season was “P.T. Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth, Sanger’s Royal British Menagerie, The Great London Circus & Grand international Allied Shows.” The show in 1866 grew to enormous size when for a single week in Philadelphia when performing jointly with the Adam Forepaugh Circus, they used four rings, two platforms and the hippodrome track. (Saxon, A.H. P.T. Barnum The Legend and the Man, 1989, Columbia University Press. P. 287)
Barnum now wanted an attraction that would maintain a bigger and better image. Barnum was informed that he could acquire from the London zoo, the largest African pachyderm in captivity. On Easter Sunday in 1882, thousands gather at dock site for the arrival of Barnum’s latest sensation, “Jumbo.” The New York Times declared that there was more excitement in the city “than there would be in London if Queen Victoria’s imperial knee was swelled to twice its royal size.”
After three years of traveling with “The Greatest Show on Earth,” Barnum lost his super star on Tuesday, September 15, 1885 in St. Thomas, Ontario. Jumbo, while walking back to the circus train on the main line of the Grand Trunk railway, was hit and killed by a freight train. The ever-practical Barnum, having previously arranged for Professor Henry A. Ward, head of Ward’s natural Science Establishment in Rochester, New York, to mount Jumbo’s hide and his skeleton, promptly exhibited the remains of his star.
Barnum suffered a stroke in 1890 and passed away in April 1891 at the age of 80. After Barnum’s death, James A. Bailey took control of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. He had acquired part interest in of his principal rivals, the Adam Forepaugh Circus, in 1890. Adam Forepaugh had first entered the circus business after receiving a share in the Tom King Excelsior Circus as payment on a debt, and began to tour a show bearing his own name in 1866. As a businessman he recognized the need for innovation in a competitive industry. He was the first to hold his performances under two separate “roundtops,” one for the menagerie and one for the circus performance. He was also the first to incorporate the Wild West Show into the circus. In less than twenty years Forepaugh went from dealing livestock to being the fiercest competitor to P.T. Barnum. While he achieved fame and fortune, he was notoriously corrupt and greedy and was known for grifting and short-changing spectators. Forepaugh did much to advance the circus but his irreverence for his customers’ money and belongings helped accusations of the circus fold as immoral. Before leaving for Europe with the Barnum & Bailey circus, Bailey combined the Forepaugh show with the Sells Brothers Circus under the name of Adam Forepaugh & Sells Brothers Great Consolidated Shows.
Another circus that would forever change the landscape formed in 1884 in Baraboo, Wisconsin. The five brothers of the Ringling family ¾ Albert Charles, Charles August (Gus), William Henry Otto, Alfred Theodore (Alf T.), Charles Edward (Charley), Henry William George (Henry) ¾ started as a small wagon circus. The eldest brother, Al Ringling, had begun performing in 1879 as a juggler and acrobat, when he was not working as a carriage trimmer. The brothers banded together in 1882, blending their talents in music, theatre, and acrobatics. By 1890, their show had grown so large and prosperous that they were able to convert to railroad transportation.
Unlike Forepaugh, their drive for success never seemed to edge into greed. The Ringling Brothers knew the importance of fairness and were equal partners. Recognizing the corruption of competing circuses, the brothers created a safe and morally sound environment. At Ringling shows there was no profanity, no crooked gaming devices and no short-changing. Their business approach and their commitment to fairness made Ringling a lasting household name for over one hundred years. When Bailey returned from Europe with the Barnum & Bailey circus in 1902, the Ringling Bros. Circus was a powerful rival.
1884 saw the beginning of yet another circus, with the very impressive title “Wallace and Company’s Great World Menagerie, Grand international Mardi Gras, Highway Holiday Hidalgo, and Alliance of Novelties” (it was renamed the Great Wallace Shows after the first season). It went on the road in April 1884. Ben Wallace, a former livery stable owner from Peru, Indiana, formed this circus with his partner James P. Anderson. Al G. Field, a talented African-American Virginian who was one of the country’s top minstrels when he wasn’t traveling with the circus, was Wallace’s head clown and equestrian director from 1884-1886. During this period it was very rare for an African-American to hold two important positions in the circus. For over a hundred years, the circus industry, which on one level seems so accepting of every variety of human being, was in reality no exception to the rule of discrimination. Black circus performers after the mid-19th century were traditionally limited to minstrelsy, freaks, colored sideshow bands, and tribal warriors. For the most part, the menial jobs of the circus labor force were usually given to the black population of the show.
The Wallace circus was successful, but it ran into problems. The show became so well known for encouraging scam artists and pickpocket artists that it operated under the name “Cook and Whitby’s European Circus, Museum and Menagerie” for the 1892-1894 seasons. Even so, the show often had to circumvent towns for fear of reprisal for crimes committed the year before. In March of 1898, Diamond, then the largest elephant in the country died at his winter quarters in Peru, Indiana. And, with the show traveling on rail, train wrecks were a constant worry. There were wrecks in 1892, 1903, and 1908. The 1903 accident, in Durand, Michigan, killed more than twenty people and several animals (including an elephant) when the train’s air brakes apparently failed. The Wallace show was not the only circus in America to suffered railroad mishaps. An article in Bandwagon, September/October, 1975, Fred D. Pfening, Jr. lists nineteen accidents between 1877 and 1906. In 1907, when Ben Wallace bought the great German wild animal trainer Karl Hägenbeck’s show, it became the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. The events listed below begins with putting a large circus on rails and following the development of Barnum & Bailey and the Ringling Bros.
http://www.circusinamerica.org/public/timelines?date1=1872&date2=1905
some info I found on the 19th century American circus scene. I'll slap together a composite sketch of the Aygomenian circus this evening and put it on the first post of the reference section
